Booth Duty
by drippinghoney
Summary: Frau's been strong-armed into booth duty. Little does he know, it's going to change his life. [Short chapter series, because I'm lazy]. [AU, Frau POV]. [Frau/Teito].
1. Prologue

Many thanks to the wonderful Melanch0lydreams for letting me use her confessional booth idea and for helping me with story flow!

Disclaimer: Don't own.

* * *

If there was anything Frau disliked most, it was booth duty.

He just wasn't suited to it. Consoling people and giving them advice on how to guide their lives into the light was something Labrador and Castor were good at. Frau, who _was _the god of severance, was more suited to saving people and banishing Kor into the deepest pits of hell. Even Castor would agree to that, in his own annoying way.

"Anyone who has to turn to _Frau_ for advice is a desperate soul indeed," the bishop remarked behind glinting glasses. If looks could kill, Frau's laser blue glare would have torched him thrice over. In petty revenge, Frau made himself conveniently unavailable for the next three weeks whenever the subject of booth duty came up, leaving his fellow bishops to pick up his shifts.

He should have known that Castor would soon resort to dirty tactics if he kept pushing him like that, and one morning after prayer Frau found himself cornered by his cranky-looking mentor before he could pull his usual disappearing act.

_Castor, that little snitch!_

"Bishop Frau, you do realize today is your turn in the confessional booth?" said Assistant Archbishop Bastien, eyebrow already twitching dangerously like when Frau was a kid and Bastien would catch him in the middle of hunting the pond fish or lifting skirts in the courtyard.

"Uh, yeah, about that, I already had my turn last week. So…." Frau surreptitiously inched back.

"Is that so? How strange. I could have sworn I saw Bishop Castor in the booth the week before. And the week before that. And the week before _that_."

"…."

Bastien loomed over Frau, using the couple extra inches Frau had never been able to catch up to him on. "I suggest you get to it then," Bastien intoned, and the almost manic gleam in his eye dared the blond bishop to argue. A chill went down Frau's spine, and he threw a murderous look over at where Castor and Labrador were smiling widely at them before letting Bastien drag him away.

"Have fun, Frau!" Castor called with a wave. Frau gave him a neat one-finger salute behind his back, flustering a couple passing sisters in the process.

"Oh dear, do you think he's angry?"

Castor sighed happily, peace radiating from every pore. "Very."

* * *

It's probably not the smartest idea to start another chapter story when my first isn't even close to finishing, but I'm not exactly the smartest person in the first place. Chapters will be short (200~1000), and hopefully quick.


	2. Chapter 1

Mornings were always the busiest.

Usually Frau would see the inflated line of confessors leading to the confessional booth and quietly pity the person on duty that day. This time, Frau carefully poked his head out of the booth, saw the inflated line of confessors (some of whom he could swear were getting out breakfast baskets and settling down for impromptu picnics), and quietly pitied himself.

"Aw, _shit_." Well, as quietly as Frau could anyway.

It took over two hours and almost three to disperse the crowd, and once the last person finished confessing and hopped out of the booth in relief that his burdens had finally been unloaded, Frau, the poor shmuck that those burdens were unloaded upon (along with about thirty other peoples'), dropped his head against the screen door separating the two compartments of the booth, thoroughly exhausted.

Who knew it would be so tiring to sit here for a few hours and just listen to people?

It would be a while still for lunch, so Frau decided to ditch his afternoon duties (no way he was going to do those AND booth duty) and settled down for a quick nap.

The booth (at least on his side) included a padded bench. The whole bare wood décor idea had been ditched in favor of non-aching buns. Frau silently thanked whoever had been smart enough to make the change and leaned back on the bench, stretching his legs as far as he could, which wasn't very far even when he shifted his body to stretch diagonally across the space.

In hardly any time at all though, Frau soon fell asleep.

Later, the sound of a creak woke him up. Immediately, Frau opened his eyes. He had expected to see one of the other bishops or even the old man checking up on him but the door wasn't open.

False alarm.

Frau yawned widely as he pulled himself up into a sitting position, blinking tears from his eyes. He felt drowsy still, but now that he was awake the sleep was quickly disappearing from his limbs.

As Frau was wondering alternately how long he had been asleep and what he should have for lunch, a hesitant voice interrupted his thoughts from the other side of the booth. "Hello? Are you there, Father?" Oh, so someone had come in, and someone young by the sound of it.

Frau yawned again to rid himself of the last bit of sleepiness left and rubbed at his eyes with one hand as he slid open the screen cover between them. "Yeah, I'm here. What do you need, kid?"

Behind the screen lattice, the other figure twitched just slightly.

"I'm not a kid," was the quiet, but adamant reply.

Frau smiled at his spunk. "Of course you're not," he agreed not unkindly. "Why don't you tell me why you're here. You have something you want to confess?"

The kid paused for a moment, like he was unsure of how to start. "I…."

Frau remained silent as he waited, and he wasn't surprised when the kid went into the customary opening for the confessional. "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned."

The next part however, did manage to surprise Frau. Thoroughly.

There was a gulp and a sigh, and then finally in his little-boy-kid voice, he confessed, "I killed my best friend."


	3. Chapter 2

Frau's breath escaped him in a whoosh. He was only vaguely aware of his own disbelieving exclamation.

"What?"

He realized his mistake almost immediately.

There was a small sound from the other side of the booth, and then the booth door banged open and there was the rapid slap of shoes against the stone floor as the kid ran off. Frau swiftly kicked open his own door with the cry of, "Wait, stop!"

What he saw outside though was the stillness of the empty church, not a soul in sight.

"Tch, dammit," Frau cursed and let himself fall back on the booth's bench, head in his hands. He couldn't do this, he groaned inwardly to himself as he massaged the sides of his forehead. A migraine was slowly but steadily building up between his ears due to the mess of confessions that morning, but the last one he had received could probably take most of the credit. Frau felt irritated at himself for scaring off the boy before he could finish his confession.

Obviously the boy had rounded up a lot of nerve before stepping foot in the booth. A person didn't just admit they had killed someone and not be bothered by it, especially one that young. Frau's response must have horrified the boy when he came to the church for aid and understanding, both of which Frau's clumsy response lacked.

In his defense though, anyone would have been shocked to hear something like _that _admitted to them out of the blue.

_"I have killed my best friend." _Frau frowned. Even in his head, it sounded bad.

As he drummed his fingers against the screen in between the booth compartments, Frau contemplated the short encounter he just had and the sound of the boy's footsteps as he had run off.

His fingers slowed to a stop. Out of all the people that had confessed that day, that kid had been the only one that hadn't been able to finish. Frau realized he wanted him to finish his confession, badly.

It was an odd revelation but there it was.


	4. Chapter 3

Thanks to Melanch0lydreams for reading over plot again! These last two chapters were a lot of fun to write, and she seemed to like reading them as much as I liked writing them. Hope you guys like them too.

* * *

It was four days before Frau "saw" the kid again. Just as before, the kid showed up much later when the rest of the confessors were long gone. Frau was just about to leave for lunch when there was the familiar creak of the booth door opening and a person slipped into the other compartment.

With an quiet sigh, Frau reopened the sliding door to the screen window and said as patiently as he could to the shadowed figure on the other side, "Is there something you would like to confess?" His poor stomach grumbled silently for sustenance and he put a hand over it for patience.

There was no response from the figure but Frau could hear the sound of breathing. As his stomach grumbled again, Frau repeated the question and let his irritation color his voice. He could be getting lunch right now.

More silence.

A tick appeared in Frau's forehead. "Oi, are you going to say anything or what?" Frau barked, starting to suspect that he was being pranked.

After another moment, the person responded in a surprisingly young voice.

"…What are you still _doing_ here?" the person said in a mix of confusion and frustration.

Frau jerked in shock, recognizing the voice. The kid! He felt a rush of relief that the boy had finally reappeared, and then annoyance as he realized what the kid had just said. "What am_ I_ doing here? That's my question, brat. What are _you _doing here after running off so fast last time?"

On the other side, the kid visibly bristled. "Don't call me a brat!"

Frau blinked and then smiled, amused, "What would you like me to call you instead?" he said, but the boy didn't respond. Frau cleared his throat. "You don't have to tell me your name." _Yet._ "It's not necessary. Why don't you just start off by telling me why you're here? Was there something you wanted to confess?" _Or finish confessing?_

"I…." The boy hesitated.

Frau pushed, "This meeting will be kept completely secret. The Church will keep your confidence for as long as you want."

Immediately, the boy snapped, "I know that! I know, it's just…." He sounded unsure and more than a bit lost, and Frau knew that he didn't trust the Church to keep his confidence as much as he said he did. Considering what he had confessed the last time he entered the booth, Frau didn't blame him for being wary.

Frau sighed and said, "How about you start at the beginning?"

"The beginning," the boy repeated stonily, sounding even worse.

Frau frowned, leaning forward on the bench. "Is it hard to talk about?"

"It is," the boy admitted carefully.

"Then why don't you start at _your _beginning?"

He must have caught the boy off guard because there was a short stunned silence before the tentative question, "My beginning?"

Frau nodded, momentarily forgetting that the boy couldn't see him. "Just talk about your life in general. School, parents and such." Frau thought that it was a spark of genius. By talking a bit about himself, the kid could get more comfortable and learn to open up and trust him more at the same time.

Frau's eyes widened when there was the sound of a creak and the familiar slap of shoes against stone. Frau pushed open the booth door, fully intent on jumping out after the kid when a shout stopped him.

"Don't come out!" It came from a good distance away. The boy was _fast_ if he was that far away already.

Frau paused, halfway off the bench, one foot hovering in the doorway.

The boy said hastily, "Please, I need time to think about what you said. Don't come out. Just—just stay there."

The bishop lowered his foot. The boy didn't want his face to be seen.

He could have ignored him and stepped out anyway. He was within his rights to. He had no reason not to.

Frau could, but then the boy would never come back, would he? Frau imagined the boy a few feet from the church doors, wide-eyed, tense and waiting with bated breath for the bishop to step out of the booth and catch him.

He dropped down on the bench hard. "Alright," Frau said shortly. "Go, I'll see you next time."

Outside, it was quiet and he thought for a moment that the boy had gone before Frau had even spoken, but then there was the sound of steps, hesitant at first, and then more firm.

The boy left the church sprinting.

The blond closed his eyes and with the booth door still open, breathed in the silence of the empty church.

Then his stomach grumbled.


	5. Chapter 4

It was a surprise that after the boy had dashed off the last time like he wouldn't come back, he slid easily into the booth just the next day.

Frau, who had just been about to leave for lunch, was not amused.

"You know, if you keep coming at this time I'm never going to get any lunch," the blond complained.

"It's your fault for waiting so late to eat," the boy snapped right off the bat, making Frau's eyebrows rise to his hairline.

Someone was a little more aggressive…that, or he woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.

"So, you got something for me this time?" Frau said as he slid open the screen cover.

The boy took a breath. "My name is Teito," he—Teito—announced, sounding oddly proud.

Frau grinned now that he had a name to go with the voice.

He said congenially, "Afternoon, Teito. Name's Frau. It's nice to meet you." _Finally._

"Thanks," the boy said, short but sincere.

"I…instead of…I mean, can I tell you a story?"

Frau blinked. "Uh, sure."

"Okay," Teito started, sounding like he was trying to gather his nerve. This must have been one hell of a story, Frau thought to himself.

"Once upon a time…"

Frau grinned. "Are you telling me a fairy tale?"

"No. Shut up and listen," Teito said testily, "Once upon a time—"

An audible snicker. "You ARE."

"Hey!"

"Okay, okay, I'll be quiet."

A huff, and sigh, and then again, repeating, "Once upon a time."

The boy paused like he was expecting another interruption and when there wasn't, he licked his lips and continued in a rush.


	6. Chapter 5

"Once, there was a kingdom, with a king and queen and prince—a family. And they were happy and the kingdom was happy. I think."

Frau couldn't help echoing, "You think?"

"Yes, I think. I'm not sure, okay!"

"Right, right, it's your story," Frau conceded, holding up his hands. "Go ahead, what next?"

"Next…I'm not sure….How the story goes, I mean."

"Huh, when's the last time you heard this story?"

"Er, last night," Teito admitted.

Frau sweat-dropped. "You have a hell of a memory, kid."

"I know...," he hesitated, "I know something bad happened. Something really bad, and the kingdom was destroyed. There was smoke, fire, and the castle was torn down, in ruins."

"Sounds like war," Frau commented tonelessly.

Teito's voice got slightly lower and stronger, which was necessary for the next part. "Everyone died—everyone. Men, women, children, and…and the king and queen. Everyone, they all got burned up."

Frau shifted. "This is getting kind of graphic, kid. You sure you want to tell this story?"

Teito continued like he hadn't heard what Frau said and there was a blankness to his voice that gave Frau a bad feeling. "The kingdom disappeared and no one heard of it again, except in legends and stories like this one…," Teito trailed off into silence.

Frau clicked his tongue. "Please tell me that's not the end of the story or I'm labeling you the world's worst storyteller."

"What? No, of course not! Hold on, the next part...I mean, the prince escaped."

"Oh, the prince did? Interesting. How'd he get out?"

"There was a man, in white. Like, a white dress? No, that sounds stupid."

Frau, realizing something sounded familiar about that, looked down at what he was wearing and raised an eyebrow. "Hey, kid."

"Hmm?"

"Are you talking about…robes? Like a priest's robes?"

There was a sound like a quick breath sucked in between the teeth. "Yes, that's it! It was a priest! No, not just a priest. A, a bishop!"

He's so excited over something so small, Frau chuckled inwardly.

"I thought it might be that. I said something like that too when I first came to the Church. Said I would never wear a dress if I could help it." Frau felt nostalgic.

"How old were you when you came to the Church?" Teito questioned.

"Not much older than you are now, I reckon."

"Ah…how old do you think I am?"

Frau hesitated. "You sound like you're in your early teens, although I can't be sure unless I look at you. You can't be over sixteen though." Your voice hasn't cracked yet, Frau thought.

"That sounds about right." There was that strange tone to Teito's voice again, like when he had told Frau his name, as pleased as a child that learned something new.

Frau's brow furrowed as he realized something.

"You…"

* * *

AN: I found both chapter fifth and sixth on my computer last updated October 15, 2010, also probably written before my year-long writer's block set in. Sorry they're not much, but I didn't want them just gathering dust on my hard drive. Again, this fic and my other chaptered fic "How to Break an Engagement" are still on hiatus. Sorry, but I hope everyone has a good holiday!


	7. Chapter 6

AN: This might be revised depending on whether I can get in touch with a certain beta I've been neglecting.

On another note: Yay! My three-year hiatus is over! Let's see if we can't take this story somewhere amazing, shall we?

.

.

"You don't know your own age?" Frau asked.

"No," Teito admitted. "Not exactly. I'm an orphan." That had been kind of obvious though.

"Okay, sorry about that. Continue, there was a bishop who helped the prince escape?" Frau said.

"Yeah, exactly. He helped the prince escape, and there was a bunch of other people in black and in armor, and then that's it," Teito finished lamely. Frau looked confused.

"That's it?" he said, "That's no ending! What happened to the prince, or the bishop? And what's with all the other people in armor?"

Teito sounded just as confused as Frau did, which was strange considering this was his story. "I'm not sure. The prince just escaped. The bishop disappeared, and all the other people disappeared too."

"Hmm, that's not much of a story, kid," Frau commented.

"I know, but it's all I have," Teito said petulantly.

"Right, well, let me tell you a better story about an orphan kid that was actually kind of like you," Frau said as he ran a hand through his blond hair and gave the screen a cocky smile. "This kid was saved by a superhero man of God, and then became a superhero himself after painful training and suffering and so on."

"A superhero man of God?" Teito said dubiously.

"Yep, it's what lowly mortals call a bishop."

.

So it went on that the two of them would pass stories back and forth whenever Teito came by. He always came right when Frau's shift was supposed to be over, but Frau was willing to bet that Teito didn't know that. As for Frau, he didn't have any duties directly after confessional so who was to blame him if he spent an extra hour or two in the booth?

Frau's stories were always larger than life, outlandish and obviously made-up but Teito seemed to like them anyways so he kept telling them. Teito's stories were…well, to tell the truth they were depressing, especially when he finally started referring to himself in them since they were obviously just snippets of his own life.

Frau's stories were about heroes who took down evil doers and ended up saving the world and winning the girls.

Teito's stories were about the boy that met the cat, the boy that fell in the pond and the boy that tried the mysterious dish known as fried eyefish on a stick. Frau gallantly kept from teasing the kid, even though it was tough.

He must have been from somewhere beyond the 7th district if he had never had eyefish before, and when Teito mentioned seeing people eating flowers it was obvious he had never had edible flowers before either.

So before booth duty the next day, Frau stopped by Labrador's garden.

"Mmm, this one's tasty," Frau mumbled through a mouthful of blue lilies. A shadow silently approached his crouched figure and stopped directly behind him.

"Frau, what are you doing?" Labrador asked, the small vein in his forehead getting increasingly larger as he looked over the bundles of flowers Frau had piled around him.

Frau choked and thumped on his chest as he coughed furiously. Labrador had his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed unforgivingly by the time he got all the flowers out of his throat.

"Ehehe, I was just testing the new crop. It's very good, you've done very well this time, Labrador," Frau said nervously, swiftly sweeping the bundles of flowers into his arms and backing away. The other bishop was a good head shorter than him and yet still so intimidating, no one could have blamed him for his retreat.

"Frau." Labrador growled and jabbed a finger at the garden Frau had gone through will all the grace of a rampaging boar. "What are you going to do about my garden? You've trampled and pulled up almost half of it! It's a wreck!"

"Flowers grow, Lab! It'll be good as new in no time, just give it a little rain and sunshine," Frau said reassuringly, still backing away, but Labrador didn't seem to be taking any of his excuses. Menacing vines started creeping up out of the bushes around Frau. He had about five seconds to get out of there before he was plant food.

Making use of his long legs, Frau _jetted_. "Bye-Lab-sorry-thanks-for-the-flowers!"

"Frau! Get back here, you thief!" Labrador yelled after him, but by then he was long gone.

.

There was a surprised pause when the kid opened the door to the booth that day.

"Frau, did you put these flowers here?" Teito asked, indicating the great variety of flowers that were bunched up in a basket on the confessor's bench. In a moment of genius, Frau had nicked the basket from the offerings that day. He hadn't even received a rap across the knuckles because he was now too old for things like that and the clergy was used to Frau stealing from the offerings. He had been an absolute monster when he was a kid so they were just relieved that he had only taken a basket this time.

Frau grinned as he told Teito to try one. "These are literally the best flowers in all of District 7," he said proudly.

There was silence as Frau imagined the kid pulling off a petal of one of the flowers and placing it in his mouth. There were sounds of chewing and then an astonished sound.

"It's good," Teito said in surprised delight. Frau grinned as there were more sounds of chewing and more astonished sounds of glee. "They're all so good! I didn't know flowers could taste like this," Teito exclaimed.

There was a little blip where Teito refused to take the flowers with him, insisting that it was too much for Frau to give him, but he relented after Frau threatened to chase after him with the basket like a madman until he took it. "Don't think I won't do it. Church people are crazy. Haven't you seen us visiting every house in the district every week at god-awful times of the morning? Yeah, that's us."

"I didn't know they would taste so good," Teito kept saying. He had already started eating another flower while they were talking and his words came out a bit muffled.

"That's what you said about the eyefish," Frau teased.

"Those things look like human eyeballs! No one could blame me for avoiding them," Teito retorted through another mouthful of flowers.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Frau said smugly, channeling Castor but leaving out the usual "you caveman" bit.

They spent the rest of the visit with Frau teaching Teito the names of each of the flowers he was eating. When Teito had to rush off finally and Frau opened the grid separating the two sides of the booth, the gigantic basket was still on the bench but empty, not a single scrap of flower left.

Frau was left wondering if the boy had stuffed the flowers down his pockets, in a bag or in his stomach before taking off.

.

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AN: Man, I just love to feed Teito these days.


	8. Chapter 8

AN: I am evil, and you're about to see why.

Muah ha ha?

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Frau was in the middle of another amazing story about the adventures of Krau, superhero bishop, when he realized he could hear dripping from the other side of the booth.

"Hey, I know Krau gets in a lot of tough binds but there's no need to tear up about it," Frau joked.

"Huh?" came Teito's groggy response. Frau was starting to get a bad feeling. Teito had been unusually reticent since he arrived when he usually had a lot to say. Frau had been trying to cheer him up with stories and jokes but the responses had been lackluster at most.

"Kid, are you okay?" Frau leaned toward the screen, eyes on the dark shape beyond it. He didn't think Teito was crying.

"I'm okay, just not feeling very good," Teito reassured him. "My nose is bleeding, that's all."

Frau blew out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "And here I thought you were getting all emotional on me." Frau rubbed his hand through his hair in chagrin. "What's up? Are you not eating properly? I can get you some more flowers."

"No, no, I'm fine. I'm just…tired. Go on with the story," the boy ordered.

"Fine, bossy brat."

"I'm not a brat," was the automatic reply.

Teito left sooner than usual that day and Frau opened up the screen just to verify he was gone. What he saw made him kick open his door and rush over to the other side of the booth. There was blood smeared over the bench and slowly dripping down onto the floor.

Backing away, Frau cursed and ran out of the Church, hoping he could catch Teito before the stupid kid disappeared.

He was too late though. Teito was gone.


End file.
